tenderloin youth leadership program. as part of my job i go to all high schools all over the l city recruiting kids to join the program and i hear all too much the common stories of students who can't afford to go to school, actually students that end up missing several days a year, costing the san francisco a lot of money, as we're not getting paid when they're not in school. also, so many teachers tell me how they have to take so many to help students get to school and back home to commute. it's a very unfortunate thing that i hear all too much. the 70% youth discount is just not enough. every other city provides free public transportation to and from school except this city. also, it's very difficult for a family of four to send their kids to school when they're low income and they have to send all four children to school.

that becomes very, very difficult. also, some students end up not going to school because they're too embarrassed to ask for the school. we have the resources, we have the support from the community, we have the support from the ftma. all we need is for you to make the right decision and to invest in the children. although you might not have five children of your own and you might not be low income yourself we expect you to have compassion for those that are. thank you. you. next speaker. >> good morning. my name is -- gallegos i work with lavos latina we work in the tenderloin and we work with many families, i'm not sure you know the high concentration of children that do live in the tenderloin. and i find it quite shocking because i grew up in a town where bus, schools, yellow bus you were iew bib which tus and the fact they have failed our

children is a disappointment. many youth and families that you'll hear from shortly use sometimes they can't afford, they have to choose, two kids can ride muni and one can't. that shouldn't have to be a choice in today's day and age and especially in such a wealthy city such as san francisco. investment in our youth is investing in a free youth for muni campaign because this is a long-term investment and i'd like you to hear from the families who live in the tenderloin. the respect you ask from us we'd like reciprocated as well. i noticed it may be difficult to focus and maintain eye contact with everybody speaking but the community notices and we ask that you reciprocate that respect as well. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> [speaking spanish]

>> translator: good morning. my name is margarita, a tenderloin resident. many of us are here for your support and the free muni for youth passes. my hopes are today that you, as supervisors, will continue -- or support free muni for youth. as many of you know, or may not know, the majority of us are from low income families and the fast pass for our kids would be incredibly helpful. eliminating this additional cost

would really help us in terms of having money for food and basic necessities. as low income people, as people who often live in poverty we're asking you to please support us and our children. thank you. i believe that actually everybody needs fast passes, youth, the elderly and people who are disabled. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thankidjiñ you. next speaker. >> [speaking spanish] >> translator: good morning. my name is magdalena, i work

with -- latina. i have a family with three daughters, and muni is our main source of transportation, our only source of transportation. the need is big. our youth really need this to get to school, and after school as you all know, san francisco is really expensive place to live and these fast passes would make an incredible difference in our familye3( añ economy.

and the best thing in our youth today is a great option, given the fact that they will be investing in our economy and sustaining the economy in the future. what i'm really here is to ask you today is that you support our youth and we are really hoping that we can count on your support. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> how you doing, mime i my name is dond boyd and i'm a member of power and central city sro collaborative. our youth, this summer, they put in a lot of work to fight for that money. they could have been doing other things, playing ball, anything but running back and forth to oakland, trying to fight for the money. i think we should support our youth. i think we should put everything behind our youth because that

money is a small amount of money but you invest in the future. you need to help the youth out because if you don't help them out you know where they're going to end up, in the juvenile justice system. so that money to get to school, plus helping them with tutors, plus letting them know that the city is behind them, the county is behind them, that will make a better society. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. my name is jane martin from power. so we're excited that we're on the verge of launching this program, mta is committed. and i want to thank supervisor chu and director risken for your comments so we're not at a choice. we have opportunity to invest both in maintenance in the system and in the youth at this point. we are a little frustrated that we're even here today, given that the board of supervisors has voted in favor of this program, that the mta board has voted in favor of it, the school

board, the youth commission, the mayor has supported it. and we're a little disappointed quite frankly, supervisor wiener, as a transit advocate that you would choose to distance yourself from the families and the youth and the children who rely on the muni system because we are also transit advocates we're organizing every day on the buses, we were knocking on doors throughout the fall to pass proposition 30 in part because it would raise critical transportation funds we need, we were part of the muni revenue panel and we're going to continue to be part of the efforts to raise money for this system. we care about the reliability of the buses, we care about investing in the buses because we ride them every day. pitting us on different sides is really disappointing and we want to continue to work together with the director risken. we like where he's taking the agency to develop solutions for this system in the years ahead. i also wanted to disagree about the way the funding has been characterized. the mta board's original

approval was pending receiving/8 money from the mtc. it didn't specify what funding. the mta could have applied for that -- funding for other projects as well and they could still apply for that funding. sot current funding is an appropriate use and we're excited that this funding will start shortly. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors, my name is julian gillett, san francisco's policy director for transportation in mayor lee's office and the mother of a public school students whose yellow bus was cut. free muni youth was replace -- but i can assure you there is no way it will function that way. last school year 2800 students traveled on the yes low school bus but were children 10-year-old or less. when the school district provides transportation it is specialized transportation for a singular market never requiring

transfers between vehicles with guaranteed seats and seatbelts. it is completely unreasonable to respect more than a tiny fraction of elementary school children to use muni on their own. free muni for youth is definitely not about replacing the yellow school buses to get students to school. it will be completely ineffective and school districts will be blamed for its entirely unpredictable failure however there is still a serious problem for children who used to take the yellow school bus they have no replacement except cars. there is also a second related problem also completely ignored by free muni for youth that we should consider, distance between elementary schools and after school programs and the lack of after school programs generally. most kids in san francisco who need after school can find it but many of the programs are not located at the school the child attends. this grates afternoon congestion pattern created because kids must be moved from school to their after school program. so from the perspective of families relying on school buses

what we need has nothing to do with free muni for youth and everything to do with making schools work better for children and parents and especially for low income families. >> supervisor wiener: julian, were you just speaking on behalf of yourself or the mayor? >> i'm also speaking on behalf of the mayor's office. >> supervisor chiu: do you have a copy of that statement? >> sure. >> supervisor chiu: one other question. i know there's been a little bit of -- what i had heard was that the mayor was supportive of the free muni for youth program is what you're suggesting he's not? i want to understand. >> my comments is from a policy direction, that the free muni for youth program has been touted as replacement for the yellow school buses and it's not a replacement for the yellow school buses. >> supervisor chiu: i wasn't aware that that was a contention that was being made by the advocates for free muni for youtbutwe can discuss that. >> you raised that issue today.

>> supervisor chiu: i understand that. well we can have this conversation. i don't think anyone is saying that we shouldn't have a yellow school bus program. i think what we're saying is that as that program is being cut back significantly, parents don't have any other options. and so thinking about this as at least one step forward toward addressing the very real need of kids who don't have any other way to get to school is something we have to think about. >> well agreed but supervisor the conversation has not been had about balancing any of those priorities. i can tell you as a public school parent that when kids from the bayview arrive at my kids public school they're arriving half an hour late. they're little kids who can't take muni by themselves and those are the school buses that are being cut. so we have never provided transportation for high school students. the yellow buses are for little kids. so it's curious to me personally why we would shift the prioritization of the transportation towardce9-kw the

different cohort of children when in fact the key heart of children whose transportation is being cut don't have another way to go to school. families work until 6, schools end at 2 and we know there are over 3,000 children whose families would like them to remain on campus to get after school which we don't fundvwj.oo we're inducing a significant percentage of the transportation issue at 2:00 in the afternoon. so there are public policyyjpq tradeoffs that should be( discussed that haven't been discussed. >> supervisor chiu: and public comment is -- shouldn't be used as an opportunity for this sort of debate but let me make one point which is if you are saying that the mayor's position is that he doesn't support the concept of free muni for low income youth because it doesn't adequately address the problem of the yellow school bus shortage that may or may not be -- i can understand part of that position, but i haven't

heard any alternative to the contrary of what we could do to address the situationwv) he fag parents and kids. and until i think we hear something different, it's a discussion or debate in a vacuum. >> agreed, sir, but again -- i've made my comment. thank you 3-6r7b8g9sd thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisor. eric williams, president for the transport workers union here in san francisco. first and foremost, let me be clear here. the transit operators union and the members of our local will not be held responsible for the late buses and the no service on the streets. i welcome this dialogue, all from prop k to prop a to all the measures surrounding muni that should be brought to the forefront, because this agency receives a heck of a lot of funds, federally mandated funds,

to deal with this transportation system. so it should be put on the table, on what the agency is doing, with the said funds. the said funds are for operations, to put together a system that works for everybody, within this community of san francisco. that being said, on the face of it, i am for the free youth passes. at this point, with the -- with this agency in the position it's in now, we need to think about how can we actually use those particular funds to benefitjpd÷ everyone within this city. if it's compromising to give a little here, give a little there, but definitely, definitely we need money for operations. if you're talking about the bus equipment is deplorable. if you're talking about buses not pulling out the barn, it's because more than likely it

don't have equipment, not because transit operators are not showing to work. far from the truth. let's make that clear. i predict the agency is almost 200 operators short so that's telling you right there the percentage of buses going out every day is not coming out. so the only thing i want to come up here and say we have to compromise somewhere because i do agree with the free transit pass outreach. i do know it's for a fact that we need more equipment. i know for a fact that operators are coming to work. so what do we do. how about we give a couple million there, how about we give a couple million on operations and how about we put a couple million towards a apprenticeship program to have new people come into the workforce, and then, in turn, once they get a job with sfmta we can give their kids free youth passes because most of the people in here are from san francisco. how about we set up a program where we can get their moms and dads, who hopefully are notkjpyñ

unemployed, into the workforce, get them a job. and then a part of being a transit operator you get free transit passes for your family. so there are ways that we can work this thing. >> supervisor elsbernd: thank you. appreciate it. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: next speaker. >> good morning. my name is carl -- i'm a -- and i support restoration of the 913, the new orleans streetcar. i really love the streetcars here. i'd like to thank you for a fine forum on an important issue. and i'd like to thank the news media for publishizing the -- publicizing the discussion. i used to live in washington, d.c. and for a time i worked at a temporary job, testing rails for the washington metro area transit authority.

over lunch with my fellow employees and myself, we'd often examine our lives, and discuss virtue. and one day, the subject of funding of urban transit came up. we came to the conclusion that regarding the use of public funds, it's better to subsidize the rider than the transit agency directly. because eventually the money went to the same places, but it would be administered better if the usage was tied to the people who actually use the system. thank youkc%( pc. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is alline lu, i went to public school here, for middle school and for high school i went to -- irvine in cal poly, for our college -- what we love about this city is we have access to all these interesting venues and

restaurants and whatnot. so given that there is so many things here, so many -- that we can come and enjoy, i think we bp for yiewtion -- providing youth opportunities to experience our city and enjoy just -- it's what we need to do and i encourage you guys to just think about that. thanks. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. my name's -- [speaking spanish]'

>> translator: i'm here to talk about an accident that i had on muni on the 22nd of june, i --

because of it i lost my job and i fell inside of the muni bus. it was headed toward 22 and south van ness. the bus -- when i was standing there and they were supposed to open the doors and took off so i slipped, fell and hit my head and i was left unconscious. so i would like this to be addressed and resolved. >> [speaking spanish] >> translator: it's a complaint that i have and i wanted to see if there was something that could be done about it. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is peter -- speaking on behalf of supervisor eric mar who would like to be here but he was unable to. he is still, as he has been for years, in strong support of the free muni for youth. previously he had been a supporter of free muni for all youth and there are many here

who initially that was thought -- but to -- so we hope that that sentiment can prevail and that is something that will be agreed upon. with the district's -- education -- well that too, but the right thing to do for equity. it's very difficult for a lot of young people -- there was one town hall that was held and a student said, why do you think at 7:00 in the morning with a backpack we're getting on the bus. where do you think we're going. we're going to school. it's very important for them and there are a lot more middle schoolers and -- who take muni to school on their own which is being given credit to right here. it's also wrong, again, as many have said, it's frustrating that there's this false choice being presented. there is another time. there are many opportunities to obtain other funding for capital costs and supervisor wiener, supervisor mar wanted to extend

an offer to advocate for those, including mta in the spring. additionally he would also like to engage in the conversation about the over all fare structure which mr. ed ruskin was referring to earlier. thank you, please support this and we are in strong support of this. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you. next speaker. if there are any other -- i've read all the cards i have. if there's anyone else who wants to make public comment, you can line up now. go ahead. >> hi. my namej!jpi is jeon brown withr and premuni for youth coalition. we are really excited that we're finally at the moment of having the program forward. we're looking forward to the mta vote on the 4th. i think this is a response to all of our various departments from the mayor, through the transit authority, all the different levels of government and the mta board have been responding really to the outcry of bus riders and thousands of

folks who ride the bus. we want to thank supervisor chiu and olague who are here, who are supporters, of course david campos, our champion, supervisor -- and jane kim all support this. so we know we have majority support on the board. if this move forward out of committee that it move forward without recommendation. thank you. >> my name is jack -- in noe valley. i've listened to this. i think there's been no way -- nobody talking about who are -- commutes and there ought to be some way to identify that. i was thinking that for example, if your parents are on medi-cal, then you ought to get a free pass. if you're going to school and your school is not -- you can't walk there or take a bike there, you ought to get a free pass. that's about it.

thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. is there any additional public comment? any additional? sir, please come forward. >> my name is paul slade, i grew up in san francisco, with a single parent. we were low income and i took a bus to school. i have a little experience. i also am a retiredjp$ operator. and i can guarantee what brother -- president of our transport workers union said is absolutely correct. i have sat and ready to go to work, driving a bus, and sat there because there was no equipment. day,fjpn# an old electric bus,d the whole area, where the sign is, dropped. it was properly secured. old, because of metal fatigue. i was driving at the time.

i could have got hurt. the buses are not being maintained. now all the -- all the ideological stances are not going to fix the buses. they have not been maintained for years. and we have the oldest fleet in america. you have to be able to have the equipment for people to ride. and, also, there's a safety issue. older equipment is not as safe as newer and well maintained equipment. the bus i drove was over 20 years old when i retired. there's no other community in america that keeps buses 20 years if they don't have to. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much approximate is there any additional public comment? yes. go ahead. sir, were you making public comment? yes. please come forward. >> if there's anyone else for

public comment, please line up or this is the last speaker. >> [speaking spanish]'jpqázy1qb

>> translator: good morning. on the subject of muni, i want to just say that i believe muni has really good service compared to other cities, like myself coming from miami, some buses don't run for three or four

hours. 14 mission in particular is really great, circulates all night and my personal opinion is to change -- in order to fix or find a resolution to some of the problems that have been outlined is to change the people who run the system, the drivers. we need to change this. there's new drivers that could be put into this place, to run the services. there's a lot of accidents that happen through muni, and so i want to encourage the idea of drug testing and alcohol testing. in terms of free muni for youth i think that it's a really good idea but we need your help to be able to make this happen. you have the power to be able to change this but it would require not just a decision today but changing the overall structure. thank you. >> supervisor wiener: thank you very much. is there additional public comment? >> my name is antonio -- a member of power. i'm here to support the youth. i believe that free muni for youth is important because they need transportatio